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AMERICANISM 

AN  ADDRESS 


BY 


The  Honorable  M.  T.  DOOLING 

Jtidge  of  the  United  States  District  Court 
for  the  Northern  District  of  California 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  BOHEMIAN  CLUB 

ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  "AMERICAN  NIGHT " 

TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  24,  I918 


San  Francisco 

The  Bohemian  Club 
1918 


ISAAC   UPHAM   CO. 


FOREWORD 

THE  EVENING  of  Tuesday,  September 
24,  igiSy  was  set  apart  in  the  Bohemian 
Club  as  American  Night.  There  had  been  cele- 
brated previously,  French  Night,  British  Night, 
Belgian  Night,  and  Italian  Night. 

American  Night  is  memorable  particularly 
for  the  response  of  the  Honorable  M.  T.  Booling, 
Judge  of  the  United  States  District  Court  for 
the  Northern  District  of  California,  to  the  toast, 
''Americanism.''  Its  lofty  sentiments  and  the 
manner  of  the  address  electrified  all  those  who 
were  present,  creating  the  greatest  enthusiasm 
and  causing  immediate  and  repeated  demands 
for  its  publication. 

The  evening  was  a  most  patriotic  one.  The 
Club  dining  room  was  decorated  with  the  colors 
of  the  Allies — our  Stars  and  Stripes  draping  the 
Club's  service  flag  of  one  hundred  and  fifty -one 
stars.  The  entire  Club  chorus  entered  the  room 
singing  ''America,  the  Beautiful."  During  the 
dinner,  popular  songs  representing  this  coun- 
try's  wars  were  sung  by  the  chorus  joined  by  the 
members.  These  were  rendered  chronologically, 
commencing  with  "  Yankee  Doodle,"  followed  by 
"When  Johnnie  Comes  Marching  Home" 
(substituting   "the   Yanks"  for  "Johnnie"), 

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'' Columbia  y  the  Gem  oj  the  Ocean^'  ''Dixie" 
''A  Hot  Time  in  the  Old  Town  To-night,''  "  Over 
There y'  "  There's  a  Long,  Long  Trail"  and 
''Joan  of  Arc."  Pledges  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  to  the  Allies  and  their  rulers, 
were  made,  Mr.  George  Sterling  read  a  poem, 
^^ Service,"  written  for  the  occasion.  Remarks 
followed  by  Lieutenant  de  la  Sevre  of  the  French 
Artillery  {an  officer  who  has  seen  three  years 
service  in  the  trenches  and  who  bore  two  chev- 
rons for  wounds  received);  by  Captain  Tymms, 
M.  C,  of  the  Royal  Air  Force,  a  distinguished 
British  aviator,  visiting  the  camps  in  the  United 
States;  and  by  Mr.  R.  S.  Browne,  military 
attache  to  the  Red  Cross  Mission  in  France,  a 
member  of  the  Club  who  had  just  returned  from 
France  and  had  been  several  days  at  the  front 
during  the  battle  of  Chateau-Thierry .  Songs  of 
a  patriotic  character  were  sung  at  intervals,  and 
then  came  fudge  Dooling  with  the  stirring 
speech  which  is  presented  in  this  publication  in 
order  that  it  may  be  preserved  and  brought  to  the 
attention  of  a  larger  number  than  the  few  hun- 
dred who  heard  it  upon  that  notable  occasion. 


AMERICANISM 


I  HAVE  been  asked  to  say  a  few  words 
upon  Americanism  on  this  our  American 
Night.  In  complying,  I  am  embarrassed,  not 
by  any  lack,  but  rather  by  the  excess  of 
material  that  the  subject  brings  to  hand.  In- 
deed, what  one  may  briefly  say  upon  a  sub- 
ject so  broad  depends  altogether  upon  the 
angle  of  approach,  and  I  am  led,  by  training 
perhaps,  to  a  phase  that  may  seem  common- 
place. But,  in  these  days,  I  believe  we  should 
occasionally  be  brought  face  to  face  with  \U4j^^ 
fundamental  ideas — ideas w:hich,  because  they  ,  ^  ,  ^d' 
are  so  familiar,  are  cons;tan,tiy:  oy^rlb^k^idj;': '/A 
forgotten,  or  ignored.  Yet  it  is  in  their  de- 
fense that  we  are  now  engaged  in  this 
tremendous  war. 

Americanism  is  something  of  an  abstrac- 
tion, and  hard  to  define.  No  two  persons,  per- 
haps, would  define  it  exactly  alike,  even 
though  to  all  the  idea  may  be  basically  the 
same.  To  me  it  means  the  great  common 
spirit  which  everywhere  pervades  the  land; 
the  spirit  of  individual  liberty,  properly  pro- 
tected and  duly  restrained.  It  is  a  product,  a  ^  -^ 
result,  an  emanation  rather,  from  the  system 
which  at  once  affords  the  protection  and  im- 


poses  the  restraint.  It  is  so  interwoven  with 
that  system  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  where 
the  concrete  ends  and  the  abstract  begins. 
But  we  cannot  understand  the  one  without 
a  consideration  of  the  other.  To  us,  who  are 
accustomed  to  our  free  institutions,  who  are 
born  under  the  American  flag  or  admitted 
into  American  citizenship — there  comes  no 
doubt  of  their  justice  or  permanence,  and  the 
great  social  and  civil  truths  that  underlie  and 
sustain  them  are  so  much  a  part  of  our  very 
existence  that  it  seems  to  us  they  must  have 
sprung  fully  developed  from  man's  unculti- 
vated instinct,  -But  nothing  could  be  further 
from  the  truth. 

In  the  long  i4pw;ird  struggle  of  the  human 
race  for  individual  liberty,  every  form  and 
variety  of  government  had  been  tried,  from 
the  extreme  slavery  and  subjection  of  mil- 
lions to  the  caprice  of  one  man;  through  long 
centuries  of  suffering  and  hope,  of  struggles  on 
the  field  and  contests  in  the  forum,  by  dun- 
geon, rack  and  scaffold,  with  the  fires  of 
liberty  now  burning  brightly  for  a  moment, 
and  now  all  but  extinguished  in  the  blood  of 
its  adherents,  from  India  westward  by  way 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  the  mediaeval  muni- 
cipalities; through  all  the  varied  feudal  forms, 
the  changing  political  experiences  of  England, 
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France  and  the  Low  Countries;  and  finally  cul- 
minating in  the  happy  success  of  American 
patriots  in  establishing  in  a  newly  discovered 
land  a  government  based,  not  upon  the  rights 
of  rulers,  but  upon  the  rights  of  man,  and  for 
which  no  possible  abiding  place  could  have 
been  found  in  all  the  world  as  it  had  thereto- 
fore been  known. 

Upon  this  new  and  broad  domain,  in  the 
wide,  free  spaces  of  a  land  of  unknown  limits, 
old  theories  were  overthrown,  and  a  new 
principle  enunciated,  that  upon  foundations 
where  liberty  and  law  find  equal  support,  a 
government  could  be  maintained,  not  by  the 
power  of  standing  armies,  or  the  might  of 
floating  navies,  but  by  the  willing  support  of 
an  enlightened,  free,  and  patriotic  people. 
By  a  distribution  of  powers,  untried  till  then 
and  by  the  world  regarded  as  a  hopeless  ex- 
periment, they  granted  to  local  communities 
the  control  of  domestic  affairs,  and  entrusted 
their  care  and  maintenance  to  the  various 
state  governments.  They  collected  and  de- 
posited under  a  written  constitution,  all  the 
power  necessary  to  guard  the  larger  and  the 
common  interests,  and  established  a  central 
government  sufficiently  powerful  to  protect 
the  meanest  and  restrain  the  most  august;  to 
maintain  the  dignity  of  law-abiding  freedom 


among  the  powers  of  the  earth;  to  defend 
now  the  interests  of  a  hundred  million  free- 
men, to  hold  their  authority  and  speak  their 
voice  in  the  face  of  all  mankind. 

Warned  by  the  wrecks  of  the  past,  they 
liberated  religion  from  bondage  to  the  tem- 
poral power,  separated  Church  from  State, 
and  blotted  from  the  statute  books,  the 
crimes  of  nonconformity.  They  quenched  the 
torch  that  kindled  persecution's  cruel  fires, 
prevented  the  enactment  of  any  law  to 
compel  adherence  to  a  specific  form  of  wor- 
ship; disestablished  churches  and  removed  re- 
ligious disabilities;  abolished  all  exactions  for 
the  maintenance  of  ecclesiastical  authority; 
guaranteed  to  every  one  the  utmost  freedom 
in  the  exercise  of  his  religion  and  restrained 
forever  the  power  of  the  government  from 
being  enlisted  against  the  adherents  of  any 
sect  or  creed,  protecting  with  equal  impar- 
tiality the  mosque  of  the  Musselman,  and 
the  altar  of  the  fire-worhsipper,  the  Jewish 
synagogue  and  the  Roman  cathedral. 

The  result  has  been  the  absolute  triumph 
of  disenthralled  humanity.  In  those  great 
ideas  of  responsible  and  popular  government, 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  lie  the  causes 
that  have  made  of  Americanism  the  thing 
that  we  know  it  to  be.  They  bring  into  action 
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the  noblest  impulses  of  our  natures  and 
encourage  the  development  of  the  best  that 
is  in  our  citizenship.  They  lead  the  humblest 
among  us  to  exert  himself  to  the  utmost,  as 
no  limit  is  placed  upon  the  rewards  to  be 
attained.  Within  our  boundaries  each  man 
stands  upon  an  equal  footing  with  his  fellows. 
The  road  to  advancement  is  open  to  all.  Our 
history  on  its  every  page  records  the  names 
of  those  who  under  every  disadvantage,  have 
amassed  fortune  or  acquired  fame. 

It  is  the  glory  of  our  free  institutions  that 
they  open  to  all  the  avenues  of  wealth  and 
distinction,  and  secure  to  all  protection  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor. 

There  is  no  boy  in  America  to-day,  however 
humble  his  birth  or  in  whatever  depths  of 
poverty  his  lot  may  be  cast,  who,  if  he  have 
but  a  clear  head,  a  strong  arm,  and  a  brave 
heart,  may  not  rise,  by  the  freedom  of  our 
laws  and  the  liberality  of  our  people,  until  he 
stands  with  the  foremost  in  the  honor  and 
estimation  of  his  country.  Unlike  that  of 
other  and  less  favored  lands,  where  stern  dis- 
tinctions of  class  and  caste  have  beaten  down 
the  aspirations  of  many  a  noble  heart,  and 
closed  the  doors  of  advancment  to  everyone 
not  fortunately  born,  our  society  does  not 
resemble  the  rigid  crust  of  the  earth,  with  its 


impassible  barriers  of  rock  and  its  impenetra- 
ble layers  of  stone,  but  rather  the  waters  of 
the  mighty  sea,  broad,  deep,  boundless,  but 
so  free  in  all  its  movements  that  the  drop 
which  to-day  sweeps  the  sands  in  its  un- 
fathomable depths,  may  rise  to-morrow, 
through  all  the  vast  expanse  till  it  flashes  in 
the  sunlight  on  the  crest  of  the  highest  wave. 
Out  of  these  conditions  arises  that  Ameri- 
canism which,  under  God  to-night,  is  to  be  the 
deciding  factor  against  the  most  dread  men- 
ace that  ever  confronted  a  vexed  and  tortured 
//  world.  An  Americanism,  which,  seeking  noth- 
ing for  itself,  now  battles  unselfishly  for  jus- 
tice, freedom  and  security  for  all;  which  states 
its  purposes  in  such  certain  tones  their  echoes 
ring  above  the  clash  of  arms;  which  pledges 
all  its  strength  of  wealth  and  men  to  crush  the 
power  that  is  driving  decency  and  safety  from 
the  world;  which,  having  set  its  hand  to  that 
great  task,  will  not  be  stayed  until  its  work  is 
done;  which,  to  that  end,  turns  all  its  energies 
from  their  wonted  ways  to  meet  the  new  and 
grim  demands  of  war;  which,  though  it  make 
mistakes,  still  heaps  miracle  on  miracle, 
achieving  the  impossible  as  though  engaged  in 
every  day  affairs;  which  launches  ships  in  all 
its  bays  like  falling  autumn  leaves;  which 
enrolls  in  its  potential  armies  twenty-three 

lO 


and  a  half  millions  in  less  than  thirty  hours; 
which,  with  its  ally,  converts  the  Atlantic 
into  a  ferry  and  through  its  submarine-in- 
fested waters  safely  transports  its  soldiers  in 
numbers  staggering  belief;  which,  with  ready 
cheer  and  amazing  prodigality,  contributes  of 
its  treasure  to  every  agency  that  can  assist 
the  work  in  hand;  which  voluntarily  saves 
from  a  supply  already  scant  an  abundance  of 
food  for  its  want-oppressed  allies;  whose  engi- 
neers amaze  a  world  in  arms  by  the  vastness 
of  their  works  and  the  celerity  of  their 
achievements;  whose  daughters  go  by  thou- 
sands to  the  fields  of  France,  there  to  undo, 
so  far  as  possible,  the  devastating  work  of 
war;  whose  peaceful  sons,  untrained  but 
yesterday,  now  meet  and  turn  the  mightiest 
machine  of  war  the  world  has  ever  known. 

I  am  not  boasting  when  I  say  that  these 
are  but  some  of  the   fruits  of  an   aroused 
Americanism,  with  the  story  not  yet  half-       \\ 
way   told.      But   this   is    true.      When   not        ^ 
aroused,   we   are   a   patient,   long-enduring,    ^ 
easy  going  people,  and  sinister  forces  have 
been  at  work  among  us,  the  full  effects  of 
whose  evil  activities  we  but  dimly  begin  to 
see.    Aside  from  the  winning  of  the  war,  no 
more  important  duty  now  lies  before  us^  than 
to  Americanize  America;  to  bring  everyone 
II 


within  our  borders  to  a  realization  of  the  fact 
that  if  he  remain  here,  he  must  adapt  himself 
to  our  institutions,  and  conform  to  our  laws; 
to  suppress  every  lawless  organization  what- 
soever its  name  or  pretended  reason  for 
existence,  and  whether  its  lawlessness  find 
expression  in  the  wanton  slaughter  of  spec- 
tators at  a  parade,  or  the  maiming  of  house- 
wives, unprotected  in  common  carriers  that 
have  fallen  under  the  ban. 


f2 


PUBLISHED  FOR  HIS 
FELLOW  MEMBERS  OF 
THE  BOHEMIAN  CLUB 
BY    ISAAC    O.   UPHAM 


■^:. 


AN    INITIAL   ^^^f^^.^^^^  TO  RETURN 
=c   /ASSESSED  FOR  ^^^]-^^^^^  pENAUTY 

DAY  AND  TO  $t.o  ___^^ 

OVERDUE.  ^ 


Photomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


